Album Review: Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It

Rolo Tomassi seem to be building a head of steam. After being announced for what feels like all the festivals this Summer they’ve now gone and released their fifth album. Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It sees the Sheffield based 5-piece continue their experimental sound that has seen fans around the world fall in love with them.

The first thing to say about this is that the entirety of it is an enjoyable listen. Even ‘Towards Dawn’ which lives up to it’s name splendidly. It’s gentle and harmonious and those that know Rolo Tomassi will know that this is just lulling them into a false sense of security, after all Grievances started off with a bang and a scream.

Well that’s where you’re wrong. As the track starts to break there’s no anger, it’s just bliss. This trickles over into ‘Aftermath’ as Eva Spence’s calming soft vocals are brought out early in the record. This really is the proper first track and it’s more indie than a lot of the back catalogue. After two and a half minutes it reaches a crescendo and a wave of euphoria comes over you. Up until this point it as the kind of opening you could listen to without focusing on but from here you have to buy in. It’s like it hits you that this is a Rolo Tomassi track, as stupid as that sounds, but it’s not exactly as you imagine.

That’s when the experimentation starts though. ‘Rituals’, one of the tracks released to promote the album is up next and it’s sinister as fuck from the first note and this carries on for nearly the next ten minutes. Unrelenting drums, punishing riffs and vocals more spat than growled all add up to what could be called uncomfortable listening. It’s powerful and moving and there’s so much happening it’s like your ears are being pulled up, down, left and right. Until seemingly out of nowhere a piano breaks it up and gives you chance to catch your breath.

At seven and a half minutes, ‘The Hollow Hour’ is as long as some bands EPs in total. What has been created here though is bigger than any band I’ve heard put out in a long time. The separate layers that have been moulded together work so well it’s like the song was always meant to be. If there weren’t half an album to go it would be easy to go back and listen again and again.

As always though, the tracks don’t really end. They merge into the next one and that’s the case here when ‘Balancing The Dark’ follows almost seamlessly. This runs into ‘Alma Mater’ with a kick and that kick continues for the next couple of minutes before ‘A Flood Of Light’ tones things down a little. The atmospheric interlude at the start of the eight minute track is welcomed after the intensity of the previous 15 minutes. This song is intense in a different way though. It’s another track layered up with so much going on and with vocals as beautiful at times as they are dirty in others. A hard trick to pull off but it’s done here like they’re not even trying.

Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It ends a three year wait for new music from the quintet and it ends it so comprehensively it makes you grateful you waited. At it’s heaviest it’s uncomfortable and at it’s softest is gorgeous. It flows through 10 tracks like it’s one long monologue and the journey is genuinely exciting. This band are something special and you need to take the opportunity this year to see them live, where they take on a whole new dimension as a band.